LEARNING FACILITIES AND RESOURCES FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO POOR PERFORMANCE IN MATHEMATICS IN K.C.S.E IN SELECTED PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KIAMBAA DIVISION OF CENTRAL PROVINCE, KENYA
Abstract
Students' poor performance in national examination remains a major concern worldwide and Kenya in particular. Teachers, students, parents, curriculum developers and the public have tended to blame one another for the poor performance in Mathematics at secondary school level. In an attempt to respond to this problem, the Kenyan Mathematics scholars have carried out many studies in Mathematics education. Despite these studies, students' performance remained poor. This means that the main reason for this poor performance had not been established. This study aimed at determining learning facilities and resources as factors contributing to the poor performance in Mathematics by students in secondary schools in Kiambaa Division. The study employed a descriptive survey and focused on Form 3 students and their Mathematics teachers. Random stratified technique was used to select 6 public secondary schools from 40 public schools of Kiambaa Division. Form 3 students were selected randomly. Simple random sampling was used to select 20 students and 4 teachers from each school sampled. Data was collected with two instruments, Mathematics Teacher Questionnaire (MTQ) and Mathematics Student's Questionnaire (MSQ). A total of 16 teachers and 80 students filled the MSQ and MTQ respectively. The findings of this study would be of significance to the teachers, students, curriculum developers and college tutors in educational institutions with regard to improvement of Mathematics performance and education. The information provided would enable them to make important decisions on curriculum development and implementation, teacher training, proper administration, learning and teaching resources, change of attitude and motivation in learners that will help to improve performance in Mathematics. The study revealed that some schools did not have adequate teaching and learning resources. This was seen as a factor that contributed to poor performance of Mathematics. Based on the above findings, the study recommended that the government and the community should provide the necessary teaching and learning facilities to facilitate the teaching Of Mathematics. The researcher makes the following suggestions for further research: There was need to conduct a research to investigate on home background and its effect of student’s performance. There was need to conduct a research to investigate how administrative factors contribute to poor performance.
Key Words: Learning facilities and resources, Poor Performance in Mathematics, Public Secondary Schools, Kenya National examination Council.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v3i3.306
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